The Haversian Canal

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September 19, 2005

A Little Weekend Trip to New Orleans

The smell was that of raw sewage, particularly, aerobically decaying raw sewage. At least outside. Inside the Tulane School of Medicine at 1430 Tulane Avenue, it smelled like anaerobically decaying raw sewage. I learned the difference while stationed in San Diego on my first ship, where I was the officer in charge of the hull and piping systems. I had nine machinists, plumbers, and welders who did the work on, among other things, the collection, holding, and transfer (CHT) system. That's the sewage system on a ship, and the stuff is piped in pipes and tanks that are always full so no air gets in. Coincidentally, my apartment was in Imperial Beach, literally on the border of Tijuana, Mexico. Walking into Tijuana one has to walk over their open sewage canal, which, obviously, is exposed to the oxygen in the atmosphere. I can't explain the difference, I mean, what would I say? "It has a strong bouquet of putrecent raisins, followed with the strong finish of a dirty refrigerator." Oh, my.

The big issue is that aerobic sewage doesn't normally displace enough oxygen to hinder breathing. Anaerobic sewage, on the other hand, creates H₂S, hydrogen sulfide, which, alone, smells faintly of mustard for the first breath or two. Then it anesthetizes the cells in your nose that tell you what things smell like. And then, if you haven't run away, it anesthetizes the rest of you. All the way. Dead.

The inside of the school was mainly brown. The floor was pretty much all brown and the walls and ceiling faintly brown. I suspect this is a combination of some seriously nasty mud and the seriously nasty organisms that can live at the bottom of the putrid Lake Ponchatrain.

My original reason for going was to see if I could recover any books, my stethoscope, anything. Based on the calcified water line around the outside of the school I know my lockers did't flood. After finding a door ajar but chained from the inside, and experiencing the aforementioned contrast, I chalked everything up as a complete loss. After four weeks in that stench, every organic molecule in that building is now raw sewage.

Our house got electricity on Friday evening and we left on Saturday morning to recover what we could before leaving for the rest of the semester. I should point out we're leaving for the rest of the semester because Tulane will start classes in Houston at the Baylor College of Medicine. Tulane professors, Baylor facilities. Anyway, my wife and I wanted to get the most useful things we could out now that we have the plan. The big ticket items were 1) my road bike because there's no parking at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, and 2) the double stroller so my wife can work out while giving my mom a break from watching our two kids. We left a key with a neighbor and met a lot of the neighbors we hadn't met before. Seems a number of people are moving back in.

We decided to rent the house and put out some conservative feelers. We got two calls today after hearing nothing for weeks. Barring major change of events we're going to be renting to a family of four that work in the same hospital as my wife. They lost everything: their apartment was seven blocks from the levee breach and they took fourteen feet of water. After seeing what downtown looks like, I'm sure all their belongings are a complete loss, so we're not even trying to break even. They can pretty much name their own price, whatever they're comfortable with. If it had been a Halliburton contractor, it probably would have been $3000 a month, but these people are living our nightmare senario. What would you do?

Posted by Niels Olson at September 19, 2005 12:24 AM

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